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Colombo overcomes language problem

COLOMBO: After a gap of several years, the government has succeeded in recruiting a number of police officers proficient in Tamil language. It was announced here on Wednesday that 175 such police officers were recruited to serve in Eastern Province as a solution to the problem faced by the Tamil-speaking people.

Defence spokesperson and Minister Keheliya Rembukwella told a news conference here that each police station in the East would get at least one police officer.

After the escalation of the ethnic conflict post-1983, there has been a dramatic drop in the percentage of Tamil-speaking officers and cadres in the Sri Lanka armed forces as well as police.

Though the government has made proficiency in Sinhala and Tamil mandatory for government servants, the rule is not being implemented strictly.

The Minister told journalists here that as a result of the efforts of the government to accelerate induction of Tamil-speaking officers and cadres into the force, 175 police personnel, including 50 women, passed out on February 16.

Mr. Keheliya said that during the period of the LTTE’s domination in the East, Tamil-speaking government officers were reluctant to work in the East as they felt threatenedThe Minister claimed that massive development programmes are under way in the East and 75 per cent of the construction of the longest bridge in the country has been completed.

Meanwhile, troops launched extensive search operations in Elavankulama, north of Puttalam following an LTTE grenade launcher fire at the “Causeway” army detachment in the borders of Wilpattu national sanctuary.

In another incident, two soldiers were injured when an Improvised Explosive Devices exploded while they were on clearing operations.

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